Incorporating the Thumb as a 3rd/4th Finger

[chaosMK]

These days I've been working on integrating my thumb more closely with my fingerstyle. I play music that can get pretty aggressive and have developed a bit of speed with my thumb over the years, for getting a punchy percussive sound in the B string range. I've been experimenting with merging my thumb more closely with my fingerstyle (basically quickly popping the thumb in with a slap) to get accents and to have a more delightful time playing 16th notes with 4 fingers essentially. This is the type of excerise I've been working on to get the fundamental coordination down-

T-3-2-1 or T-1-2-3
1-T-1-2
2-1-T-1
3-2-1-T

I keep my thumb almost in line with my fingers and use almost no wrist motion, basically popping the thumb down with it's own muscle. Slightly different from a typical slap.

I've gotten some cool sounds and accents that arent really possible with regular fingerstyle using this technique.

Anyone working on anything similar, or have more ideas for developing this type of coordination?

[cdef]

Since forsaking picks, I've always played with my thumb and fingers. However, I'm not at all systematic the way you are about these patterns - I just go by feel. What I've found is that the thumb can be thought of as the "kick drum", and whatever finger comes in naturally can be the "snare". Other fingers can do "hi-hat" accents. I mainly play downstrokes with my thumb, upstrokes with the other fingers, and this gives a sort of texture to the rhythm that can develop its own momentum alongside the actual drums.

[SunneyBoy]

i must agree with having a systematic approach especially in the beginning it has helped developed muscle memory so that i dont have think about what finger to play what note with at , my approach is strictly T123, simple but it seems to work in the begining it was extremely uncomfortable ! eg. playing the a string with my ring finger and then jumping to my g string with my thump! but its working itself out now! but remember this is purely for practise ! when gigging play it however you feel comfortable and try and incorporate the whole economy of motion approach! least movement for maximum affect!

[spindizzy]

Go to Gary Willis' site and check out his approach to incorporating the thumb. I saw these the other day and he is very specific with exercises on how to build your thumb, index, middle and ring finger technique. Also Todd Johnson has much experience in this (I believe he prefers just using the thumb, index and middle finger) and is an excellent teacher as well. He gives all props to Mr. Willis for both the thumb and floating thumb techniques so there is some synergy in how both instruct in these two applications. The secret is structured exercises, played slowly so as to minimize errors, and careful attention to motion economy, application for string crossing and finger pre-placement. Hope this helps.